2014 News

Samantha Ramsey, a rising sophomore from Grinnell, Iowa, is spending her summer as a Statewide Land Stewardship Intern for the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation. Interns travel to prairie conversation sites throughout the state, helping to maintain and restore native landscapes by removing invasive species and spreading native prairie seeds. First hand experiences with wildlife and the impacts of weather serve to further interns’ knowledge about prairie ecosystems.

The interns work closely with landowners, county conservation boards, and professionals in the field to learn and grow in their education.

Ramsey plans to major in environmental studies and French at Rhodes.

“Since Rhodes is so far away from Iowa, people often ask what Iowa is like,” she says. “This internship has helped me to develop a more detailed answer to their question. The landscape is more diverse than even someone who has lived in Iowa their whole life would think.”